


Tradition

by thewayofthetrashcompactor (BriarLily)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alderaanian Hair Braiding (Star Wars), Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Innuendo, Misuse of Alderaanian Hair Braiding, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:29:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28131696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriarLily/pseuds/thewayofthetrashcompactor
Summary: Every planet has their customs, Rey knows, but she didn’t realize just how… comprehensive the language of hairstyles on Alderaan was. Perhaps she can use them to her advantage.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 16
Kudos: 167
Collections: Reylo After Dark's Nightmare Before Christmas Exchange 2020





	Tradition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissCoppelia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissCoppelia/gifts).



For almost a week, Rey thinks she's closed the Force bond after her and Ben's last connection on Crait. She doesn't know how to feel about it: it's so much easier not to have to see the man who'd chosen power over her, but she still aches for what they'd shared. Thankfully, among the many skills her childhood had taught her was how to ignore the uncomfortable truths she didn't want to confront, and she takes full advantage of that as the Resistance races from one planet to another. The desperate search for a place to regroup their meager forces makes it even easier for her to pretend to forget what she and Ben had left unsaid. 

All that falls apart days later when a familiar low hum fills her ears as she's working in the Falcon's engine room. At least the Force has had the decency to manifest at a convenient time, something she's found rare in her brief acquaintance with it. Rose has stepped out with Finn, their connection another one of the things Rey has decided not to think about, leaving Rey alone as the Force bond crashes over her. 

Between one breath and the next, Ben appears across the room, sitting on something she can't see. He's bent over some piece of tech, tinkering just like her, though she's sure he can get whatever parts he wants instead of being forced to find increasingly creative ways of extending the life of technology that was outdated during the last war. His head jerks up as he senses the bond connecting them and their eyes lock. Rey becomes suddenly aware of the pounding of her heart, somehow beating like it’s trying to escape from her chest against her will. 

“Rey,” he breathes. She shouldn’t be able to hear him over the grumbling of the engines, muted as they are by the bond, but her name on his soft lips pierces the distance between them. The blow of it knocks the air out of her, and she has to take a moment to recover. His eyes never leave her, even as hers drop to where she has a hand shoved into a maintenance panel. Whatever she’d been doing has completely fled her mind. 

She glances back up at him, but his intense, hungry gaze is too difficult to hold for more than a moment. She understands that kind of need, though she doesn’t know what to do with it directed at her. She knows even less what to say to him after everything that’s happened between them. After he’d killed his master and she’d believed, for one brilliantly burning moment, that she could have everything she wanted, before he’d decided for the both of them that it wasn’t enough. After everything that’s been torn apart, all he can do is stare at her with those eyes like Correllian whisky and say her name like it means something, promising hope he doesn’t mean. She clings to the smoldering anger that flares back to life along with their connection. Anger is much more familiar than any of the other confusing things he makes her feel. Anger, she knows how to handle. 

“Rey,” he says again, a touch of pleading slipping into his voice, and Rey lets the anger blaze through her. 

“What?” she snaps, looking up so he can see the emotion flaring in her eyes. He seems taken aback, which only annoys her further. How did he think she would react when they saw each other again? 

“I --” He doesn’t seem to know either. It’s his turn to drop his gaze, though she feels it return to her as she pretends to continue her work on the engines. She’s not sure she can even remember the name of the tool she’s using. 

“Have you decided you’re done playing Supreme Leader?” she asks, glaring at a bundle of wires. 

He doesn’t answer. Of course he doesn’t. She snorts and starts trying to piece the mess in the panel back together. She can’t be sure that she isn’t making it worse, but right now she doesn’t care. She pretends to ignore him, as if she isn’t aware of exactly how far away he is. Even while she stares unseeing at her hands, she feels his eyes on her. 

The silence between them stretches, and eventually Rey can’t resist. She flicks a brief glance at hiim from under her lashes and finds she was right. He is looking at her, whatever he was working on laying forgotten in his lax hands, but also -- not. His gaze lingers not on her face but just behind. Instinctively, she glances back, but sees nothing but the dented wall of the Falcon. Of course, Ben would see whatever is on his end of the bond. She’s ready to assume that he’s looking at something the Force won’t let her see, but then she notices how his eyes move as she turns her head, following her. 

Her hand comes up, matching the direction of his gaze and landing on the back of her head. Her fingers brush the curves of her trio of buns. She’d pulled them into place on habit when she’d started working in the engines, and she remembers how she’d left them half down the last time she and Ben had seen each other. Is that what he’s looking at? She frowns as she searches his face. He seems to notice her curiosity and his gaze jerks back to hers with a suddenness that makes it seem he was looking at something much more private and less obvious than her hair. Building on the strangeness of his almost guilty look is the flush that quickly floods his cheeks. 

It puts Rey completely off balance. If she’d let herself imagine how their next meeting would go, she might’ve predicted parts of the beginning of their connection, but she’d never have expected the way he acts now, bashful and blushing, as if he’d caught her half-naked like she’d once seen him. Shame isn’t an emotion she’s had much time to waste on before, along with the rest of Jakku, which makes the sight of this hulking warlord hunched over and pink-cheeked all the more fascinating and bizarre. 

She’s searching for the words to ask what about her could possibly be worth this kind of reaction, when a sound from beyond the bond draws her attention. The loose metal grating of the Falcon’s floors let her know before she can see them that Finn and Rose are returning. The sound of their voices breaks through the fog surrounding Rey, and when she looks back at Ben, she finds the bond has ended and he’s disappeared. She swallows against the instinctive pain of the loss. 

By the time Rose steps into view, Rey has pulled a smile on to greet her. Finn continues on to somewhere else in the ship, and Rose picks up the tools she’d left behind. Rey likes the other woman for several reasons, including how easily they settle into work together. Rose crouches down to glare at something Rey can’t see, and Rey looks back at what she’s supposedly been working on, realizing she hasn’t gotten any further in fixing the mess. She can’t keep her mind from replaying the short time she’d spent with Ben over and over, trying to make sense of it. She debates with herself back and forth until her hand slips and she gets a brief shock for her distraction. She hisses and sticks her finger in her mouth. 

Rose’s head pops up. “Are you okay?” she asks, brow creased in concern. 

Rey still isn’t used to having people to care if she gets hurt. She pulls her finger out and shakes her hand. “Yeah.” She hesitates, then pushes forward. “Hey, is there something weird about me? My hair?” 

Rose’s frown deepens. “Your… hair?”

“Yeah.” Rey strokes a hand over the buns. 

Rose gives her a hesitant smile. “If I had to say the weirdest things about you, I’d probably go for the magical Force powers before your hair.”

Rey snorts. “Thanks.”

“You look pretty normal to me,” Rose says with a shrug. “If you wanted to do something else, you could try asking Kaydel. I’ve never been good with mine.” She gestures to where her own hair is tied back with a spare bit of wire. 

Rey smiles back at her. “Looks good to me.” 

Rose flashes her a grin, and they settle back to trying to keep the ship together for long enough to reach their next stop.

-

Now that the bond has proven it hasn’t left them, Rey finds herself connected to Ben at odd times. Never for long, but long enough for them to both pretend not to notice each other. She starts leaving her hair tied up in her old buns to see if she can get the same reaction from him as the first time. She has no idea why, but it works. He stares at her hair when he thinks she doesn’t notice and inevitably flushes red like she’s undressed for him. 

She even leaves her hair half down for a few days, just to see. Sure enough, Ben spends the time the bond connects them watching her face instead. The tension between them remains, but Ben’s cheeks don’t turn the same shade of red she’s beginning to expect. All else eliminated, his reaction has to have something to do with her buns, but she can’t imagine why.

She tries asking Finn as well, but he has even less idea than Rose. Which leaves her with one other person on the ship who might know why Ben Solo can’t look at her buns without turning bright enough to light a beacon. Rey tries searching the holonet when she can and finds some mentions of the traditional braids and hairstyles of Alderaan, which sound promising, but not the particular details she needs. It only reinforces that there’s only one person who can answer her questions, no matter how much Rey doesn’t want to ask them. She’s grown closer with the General in their time on the run, but she hasn’t yet broached the topic of her wayward son. It will be a feat to ask what she needs without bringing him up, but she has to try. Her curiosity won’t let her leave it alone, and she refuses to ask Ben. 

She waits for a time when most of the ship has settled to rest, leaving only a few stray Resistance members haunting the galley with cups of weak caf. Of course, the General sits up at the dejarik table with a datapad. Rey knows she must rest sometime, but she’s not sure when. 

Rey comes to join her, standing awkwardly as Leia looks up and notices her. 

“Rey,” she says warmly, and then pats the seat next to her. “I thought you’d be sleeping.”

Rey shrugs, and Leia eyes her knowingly. “Something on your mind?” Rey knows the older woman has the Force, but she suspects her ability to see into people is something all her own. 

“Kind of,” Rey hedges. Leia waits, giving her time to find her words. 

“I was reading something the other day,” Rey starts, trying out the explanation she’d come up with ahead of time. “Back when we stopped on Onderon, there was someone in the market who kept staring at my hair. So I tried looking up what certain hairstyles meant, but I couldn’t find anything for mine. I thought I’d see if you knew anything?”

Leia tilts her head to look at Rey’s three stacked buns. And then the General does something completely unexpected: she blushes. Not as much as her son, but the tinge of pink along her cheeks is unmistakable. It immediately confirms Rey’s suspicions. 

Something must show in her face, because Leia smiles wryly. “I’m not sure it’s the answer you’re looking for,” she hedges. “My home planet, Alderaan, had extensive traditions for hair.” Leia’s hand drifts up to touch the twist of hair crossing near the crown of her head. She’s worn it since they left D’Qar, and Rey wonders what it means. Before she can ask, Leia continues. “There aren’t many of my people left in the galaxy, but if you crossed paths with one of them, they might stare.” She trails off, the pink on her cheeks deepening, and Rey is desperate to know what she’s not saying. The General has been blunt and to the point every time Rey’s heard her speak, until now. 

“Why’s that?” Rey prompts, leaning closer. 

“Well.” Leia clears her throat. “When I say extensive: there were hairstyles for every occasion, or stage of life, such as courtship. And with those came some… informal styles. Young people especially would use them for -- er -- intimacy.” 

Mingled excitement and dread starts to creep up on Rey as she realizes the direction this is heading. Her cheeks begin to heat too, from discussing this with Leia, the Rebel hero and mother of the man who’s been looking at her hair. Rey waits as Leia comes to the key point of the conversation, neither of them quite looking at each other. 

“They were mostly for casual use, which is likely why they didn’t come up in your search, but in certain circumstances, a hairstyle such as a simple ponytail could be used by someone looking for a, um, brief partner. Or two loops stacked for someone looking for some additional… well.” Leia is now very firmly not looking at Rey, and her cheeks are starting to rival her son’s. 

“And three?” Rey asks, her voice somewhat higher than normal.

“Three stacked loops indicated an directed interest in engaging with a certain person in multiple penetration,” Leia says in a rush. Rey blinks. “All three places, as it were.” 

It takes a second for Leia’s roundabout description to filter through Rey’s thoughts. When it clicks, Rey makes a small “ _oh_ ”. 

“Ah,” she says again, louder. She’s not sure there’s much more to say beyond that.

“That’s a very obscure meaning though,” Leia rushes to assure her. “There are few enough people in the galaxy familiar with the official traditions of Alderaanian hair, let alone that kind of unwritten implication. They’d have to have grown up on the planet or been around people who were. Even I haven’t spent much time with the new Alderaanian colony in years, not since…” Leia trails off, a wistful note in her voice. Rey’s heart aches for the grief that shows on her face, just for a moment before she collects herself again.

“If you did come across someone who made that connection, I doubt you’d find another.” Leia gives her a self-deprecating smile. “Especially as we’re unlikely to spend much time in the more civilized areas of the galaxy.”

Rey laughs, the sound almost surprising her. “I’m used to that.” She stands, thoughts still racing as she tries to decide what to do with this new information. “Thanks Lei--General--Ma’am.”

Leia smiles gently at her. “Get some rest, Rey.”

Rey nods and leaves to do just that.

-

The next time the bond connects them, Rey can barely look at Ben. She’s left her hair half-down again, which is easy enough now that she’s spending time trying to make sense of the Jedi texts instead of in the engine room. He still watches her, but it’s her turn to blush and look away. She can’t stop wondering what he’s been thinking all this time. He had to know she hadn’t worn her hair like that on purpose. Was he thinking of… them? Doing that? Imagining if she really had meant it? Now that she’s thinking about it, she can’t stop. Her face feels like it’s burning by the time the bond releases them. 

She has time before the next bond to decide what she wants to do with her new knowledge. There’s a lot to consider, certainly. She’s still angry at him, that hasn’t changed, but maybe it doesn’t have to. The way she misses him and the way she’d felt in the all too-brief moments when they’d touched hasn’t changed either.

In the end, she makes her decision and starts tying her hair back up in the three loops she’s used to. She can barely look the General in the eyes when they pass in the ship, but Rey reassures herself it’s only until she can see Ben again. 

Somehow, the Force cooperates. When the bond next opens, the Falcon has stopped on some Outer Rim nowhere to resupply. Rey has volunteered to stay back on the ship, in case they need a quick escape, and has the Jedi texts open across the bunk she’s made for herself. It feels like she can breathe easier with the ship nearly empty. She’s not sure she’ll ever get used to living so close to so many people. Ben appears a short distance away, slumped back against a wall. He looks over at her as soon as the Force connects them, and then his gaze flicks to the back of her head, drawn there like he can’t help it. 

Rey ignores him at first. She frowns down at the ancient text in front of her, trying to decipher the faded words. After a short while, she moves so that one hand falls casually to the back of her head, resting in her looped hair. She strokes over the curves of her buns, letting her fingers linger and caress. She pretends not to notice him as she does, as if the movement is absent-mindedly keeping her hand busy as she focuses. She’s not practiced at this kind of thing and feels a little ridiculous, but luckily she doesn’t have to keep up the pretense for long. 

Ben clears his throat from across the room. She raises a brow, still not looking at him. 

“What --” His voice breaks, and he clears his throat again. “What are you doing.”

She does look up now. “What do you mean?”

He stares at her hair and her fingers still smoothing over one loop there. He opens his mouth, then closes it again. She can’t blame him. She doesn’t know how he’d ask what he’s likely thinking either. 

“I talked to your mother,” she says, returning to her text. Even without looking at him, she notices how he stills. He doesn’t reply, so she continues. “I had some questions about Alderaanian traditions.”

If possible, Ben freezes further. Rey wants to look at him, but she’s not sure she can get through this if she does. “Um,” he says eloquently. 

“Apparently, they put a lot of meaning in hair.” Rey can’t resist a glance, and her lips curve up at the dark flush creeping over his cheeks. “Did you know that?” she prompts.

“Um. Yes.” Ben’s eyes flick from her face to her hair to the wall and back again. 

“So.” Rey watches him, heart pounding.

His eyes meet hers. “So?”

She swallows then runs a hand over her hair again. “What do you think?”

Ben’s jaw drops, and she thinks she might have broken him.

“All three, right?” she prompts him.

“Right?” His voice comes out half-strangled, and he lurches toward her like he can’t help himself.

She grins. “Then we’d better get started.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for MissCoppelia for [this prompt](https://twitter.com/reylo_prompts/status/1330239559460786176?s=20) from the Reylo_Prompts twitter: "Rey is confused as to why Kylo is always blushing when Force-chatting OR fighting until Leia explains that to Alderaanians her hairstyle means “do me in all three holes”"
> 
> Comments are always appreciated! This was a fun one.
> 
> You can also find me on [pillowfort as thelastjedi](https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/906830), [tumblr as thewayofthetrashcompactor](https://thewayofthetrashcompactor.tumblr.com/post/632966986481221632/excited-to-share-my-fic-for-the-reylo-readers-and), and [twitter as briartrash](https://twitter.com/briartrash/status/1320406320068108294?s=20)


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